Hamilton fastest as Verstappen splits Mercedes

Morning pace-setter Lewis Hamilton keep his place during the FP2, the Brit was the only driver to break the 1:23s barrier with a quickest time of 1:23.931, Red Bull speedy Max Verstappen splits Mercedes duo after Qualifying simulations. Slight gap between Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari on long runs.

Max Verstappen was just over a tenth of a second behin Hamilton and closely equaled the world champion’s race simulation. The second Mercedes ace Valtteri Bottas came third ahead of Ferrari duo Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel.

Bottas and Raikkonen will see the stewards after the session following an incident which saw the Mercedes driver take a trip through the gravel to avoid running into the back of his fellow Finn.

Haas F1 ace Romain Grosjean made an impressing lap-time, he made sixth fastest ahead of home hero Daniel Ricciardo and the Australian was cruelly denied a chance to rival team-mate Verstappen’s time by a red flag.

Fernando Alonso set eighth fastest lap-time and the Spaniard was able to log 28 laps in the afternoon after an exhaust issue had kept him in the garage for much of FP1. Kevin Magnussen, in the second Haas, finished ahead of Stoffel Vandoorne who rounded out the top ten.